PEORIA — An 18-year-old mentally impaired Peoria man died more than two years ago because of gastroenteritis, a condition that wouldn’t have been fatal had he been given medical care sooner, a prosecutor told a Peoria County judge Friday.

Darnell “DJ” Hunter Jr. was found malnourished at his home Feb. 19, 2013, and his core body temperature had dropped to 84 degrees when he was admitted to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center that day. Within 24 hours, he was dead, said Assistant State’s Attorney Donna Cruz, during the plea hearing of Hunter’s father, Darnell L. Hunter, 41, who pleaded guilty Friday to criminal neglect of a disabled person and involuntary manslaughter.

In return for the plea, prosecutors agreed to a 12-year cap on any prison term. Without the deal, he faced up to 14 years. Cruz said the deal allowed Hunter’s other son to avoid testifying at his father’s trial, which was scheduled for Monday.

For 10 minutes, Cruz read a four-page, single-spaced factual basis that detailed the horrible living conditions the younger Hunter endured. Initially, DJ’s father told police the teen had run away and only came back four or five days before. He had been sleeping on the couch and collapsed when he tried to get up. Paramedics found DJ cold and unresponsive and lying in a pool of vomit on a couch.

Medical evidence and reports from others didn’t support the father’s claim. DJ’s younger brother, then 16, told police he had been sleeping upstairs when his father woke him. DJ was lying on a small square of tile in the kitchen. Together, they put him on the couch and then the father called 911.

While the younger brother held DJ to stop him from rolling off, DJ spoke one last time.

“DJ said ‘Daddy, Daddy,’ and then stopped moving,” Cruz said.

The prosecutor detailed months upon months of neglect which was seen by DJ’s classmates, teachers and doctors — when the teen had made it to doctors. The charges spanned a time frame from October 2012 until DJ’s death, but Cruz’s statement indicated the neglect had gone on for much longer.

“DJ had to sit cross-legged on a small square of tile in the kitchen from the time he got home from school until he left for school the next day,” Cruz said. His body, the prosecutor said, was covered with sores. “Two weeks before he died, he couldn’t stand. A week before he died, he couldn’t sit up.”

The horrendous living conditions showed that the teen, who had an IQ of 68, suffered tremendously. His clothing was disheveled and often didn’t fit. Friends and cafeteria workers at Peoria High School would give him food after they saw him eating food from the garbage or off other students’ trays. His classmates pooled their Secret Santa money to get the teen clothing and food.

Page 2 of 2 - Repeated calls were made to state officials with the Department of Children and Family Services to no avail, the prosecutor said in open court.

Had the case gone to trial, an emergency room doctor who revived DJ when he arrived at the hospital would have told jurors that had the teen gotten medical care sooner, “he would have survived.” Cruz added, “He was basically starving to death.”

DJ’s brother also told police his father would use a black stick, about 2 feet long, to repeatedly hit DJ.

The elder Hunter remains in custody at the Peoria County Jail pending his Aug. 22 sentencing.

Andy Kravetz can be reached at 686-3283 or akravetz@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @andykravetz.